two years into that new term, jim demint quit. suddenly gave up that senate seat, resigned to be president of the heritage foundation, which used to be a think tank but now employs guys like jim demint. that seat gave nikki haley a free shot at filling that vacant senate seat with whoever she wanted. the guy she picked was this man on the left, congressman tim scott. only first elected to the house in 2010. only had one term when he got the nod to move to the senate. thanks to that appointment, he was the first african-american senator south carolina has ever had. now it is his seat in the house that is vacant. and tomorrow, democrats and republicans hold their primary elections to try to fill that seat. on the democratic side, the nominee is expected to be elizabeth colbert bush. her brother uses a fancier

pronunciation of the name, known as stephen colbert. on the republican side, the front runner almost as famous as stephen colbert and more famous than his sister but not for a good reason, former governor mark sanford. he has a big national profile, but it is because of his fake hiking trip. mark sanford apologized, finished his term as governor and withdrew from public life for two years. now he is back, trying to win back the public's trust and respect by trying to win back the congressional seat that he once held for three terms. mr. hiking the trail is only one of 16 republicans trying for that seat. the others include the son of media mogul ted turner, his name is teddy, which makes ted turner hard to forget. mark sanford is the frontrunner in the primary, but unless he gets more than 50% of the vote in a field of 16 candidates, then it will be a runoff.

he and who comes in second will have a runoff next month. the polls open tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. in south carolina. this is the first federal election in south carolina since they passed a law requiring photo id. justice department personnel will be monitoring to be sure they're in compliance with the good evening from washington where the chairman of the republican party assembled a group of narrow-minded, out of touch, stuffy old men to tell republican leaders that they are narrow-minded, out of touch stuffy old men. fewer debates, more outreach, earlier convention. >> the republican reboot is under way. >> much awaited sweeping election autopsy. >> cause of death, massive full body trauma. >> focus groups described our party. >> as quote narrow minded. >> as narrow-minded. >> out of touch. >> out of touch.

>> stuffy old men. >> stuffy old men. >> pretty scathing. we know that we have problems. >> is this a communications problem? >> our principles are sound. >> there's a lot of talk about the language in the presentation. >> it offers a series of recommendations. >> our message was weak. >> it is not elegantly stated, let me put it that way speaking off the cuff. >> weren't inclusive. >> people don't get work, they'll self deport. >> i am speaking. >> you want the republican establishment, that's the republican establishment. >> this autopsy is coming out on the heels of cpac. >> this open mike from hell. >> two very different narratives. >> we are not here to rebrand the party. >> we don't need a new idea. >> conservatives have been winning. >> virtual who's who of what the [bleep]. >> we know that we have problems. >> republicans keep screwing up. >> if it is a legitimate rape. >> we're not here to rebrand the party. >> i am speaking.

>> you've got the whack oh factor at work. it was a side show. >> oh, my goodness, yes! >> conservatism is the only thing republicans have going for them. today, 132 days since the election of 2012, the chairman of the republican party has finally figured out exactly what happened. >> our message was weak. our ground game was insufficient. we weren't inclusive. we were behind in both data and digital. and our primary and debate process needed improvement. focus groups described our party as narrow-minded, out of touch, and, quote, stuffy old men. the perception that we're the party of the rich unfortunately continues to grow.

>> how could all of that have possibly happened with a guy like that running the party? in a speech in washington today, reince priebus described the 100 page report he commissioned on why republicans lost in 2012 and what they should do about it. the report made 219 recommendations, including the republican party needs to stop talking to itself. we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform, and the number of debates should be reduced by roughly half. and the republican convention should be held earlier in the summer. other than embracing comprehensive immigration reform, the report suggested no other policy changes. >> to be clear, our principles are sound. it all goes back to what our moms used to tell us. it's not just what you say, it's how we say it. it's not about altering our principles.

i think it is about the way we communicate. >> the republican who communicates the most responded this way. >> that's not at all what they've got to do. all they have to do, the republican party lost because it is not conservative. it didn't get its base out in the 2012 election. >> that's been a real republican problem, you give people the impression they're not wanted. >> no, we don't. my point is we don't do that. and it's going to be a big mistake if the republican party thinks they're doing that. who is doing that? that convention was story after story after story of the american dream, being realized, by people of so-called diversity. if anything scared people about our convention, it was the notion of hard work in the era of food stamps and unemployment compensation.

the republican battle has got to be to reshape what is thought about them, not who they are and what they're saying. >> this weekend, republicans and libertarians attending the conservative political action conference voted for their favorite possibilities for the next republican nomination in 2016, the winner of the cpac straw poll was a member of the paul family. rand paul was on top with 25% of the vote, his father, ron paul, won the cpac straw poll in 2010 and 2011. senator marco rubio placed second with 23%, and single digits support went to rick santorum, chris christie, paul ryan, scott walker, ben carson, ted cruz, bobby jindal and sarah palin. joining us now, nbc analyst and mccain senior adviser, steve schmidt, analyst and obama re-election campaign adviser

robert gibbs and huffington post editorial director howard fineman. robert gibbs, this is your debut performance on the last word. we have a motto that's very republican. it is not what you say but how you say it. keep that in mind. >> i have to say that lead in provides an exceedingly low bar for which i can roll right over. you know, chairman priebus may have cued it perfectly. >> months later, he figured it out. >> might have spent less paper figuring out the two or three things they did right in 2012 rather than all of what they did wrong. i think they have a herculean task on their shoulders because it isn't about how you say it. obviously spending $10 million to do outreach with the same message will result in the same outcome. they have a huge problem in what they say, not in how they say it. and i think the biggest problem

for the chairman of the rnc is he is not going to make any of these changes. as you mentioned, there's one policy recommendation. and there's a lot of change the color, change the logo recommendations. the rnc isn't going to make any of the policy decisions, that's all going to be made by this cast of characters that you just alluded to that were at cpac. they're the ones that are going to introduce the policies. they're going to comment on what's going on and they may look because of it out of touch, you know, way too conservative, ineffective, in many ways i think exactly what the report outlined they shouldn't be doing. >> steve schmidt, the winner of the cpac straw poll certainly has a lot of new policy ideas that republicans have not adopted, like dropping all aid to israel and pretty much zeroing out defense spending and all sorts of things. it seems like they don't even know about him.

but unless rand paul becomes the nominee, what would lead to any real policy changes in the next presidential republican candidacy? >> robert is right. policy changes aren't going to be driven by the republican national committee, they're driven by the candidates for president next round. certainly if you look at one of the recommendations was we had too many debates and the primary season was too long. i come from the school there's no such thing as a bad question, only bad answers. we had a lot of bad answers on a debate stage that on any given night resembled a reality show. that's what part of the problem is. one of the things as a republican that gives you hope, you look at some of the people to solve the leadership deficit, chris christie, marco rubio, we have a cast of characters for the 2016 race that's different than the cast of characters in

the 2012 race, so i think there's a little silver lining in that for republicans. >> let's listen to what jay carney had to say about the new republican report. >> the best way to increase support with the public for your party is to embrace policies to public supports. >> howard fineman, jay carney makes sense every once in a while. >> and he did right there. and this report from rnc read like a soviet five-year plan. we will have more production and we are going to reach out to the ethnic minorities that we don't understand. it had very little relationship to reality, except there was a distant sound of their realization that for example on gay rights, they're way, way wrong. hillary clinton today came out in favor of supporting gay marriage. young people in the rnc's own report, young people are the ones leading the way on that.

i'll give reince priebus credit for saying in that report that the issue of gay rights is a gateway issue for young people that if the republicans don't get right on, no young people are going to listen to him on anything else. it is a gateway, a gateway. they said that. they alluded barely to the question of immigration and immigration reform. you had the president today nominating tony perez, hispanic american, to be secretary of labor. putting the point that it is not so much diversity as rush limbaugh says, it is diversity. the republicans don't get it. you read that report, it sounds like they want to send an anthropological study group into america to look at hispanics, blacks, young people, gays and so forth. they just don't get it. and the way you get to them is with issues. health care, immigration reform,

gay rights, women's rights. if they want minorities, if they want to expand the party as they claim they do, it is not a matter of data mining and digital communication. it is a matter of their stand on the issues. and that's the problem they've got. they have cpac over here for the most part, rand paul sort of excepted, and their governors that are nonideological in many ways. >> and in red states. >> robert gibbs, when democratic strategists watch this cpac stuff and listen to reince priebus, it must be very encouraging. this is all happening the week after scott prowty made that video, the 47% tape at the romney fund-raiser, it was the tape that showed us what mitt romney was thinking. there wasn't anyone there, marco rubio to some extent took on that 47% tape indirectly, but

they don't seem to be acknowledging that the concepts advanced in that video were devastating. >> right. >> and you can prove it in the polls the following week of the campaign. >> right. >> as howard said, it is not the packaging, it is what's in the cereal box. they're trying to change colors on the outside and pretend there's an entirely new product and everybody will be excited on the inside. you mention governors. from a strategist standpoint, i am reminded last time the republicans were in this predicament, they lost to a democrat the second term. congressional leadership was deathly unpopular, it was the tom delay days, and there was a governor named george bush in texas who decided to become a compassionate conservative, start talking about and appealing to the so-called diversity that rush talks about. but i remember one of his first campaign speeches in mid 1999, he goes to the hispanic chamber

of commerce in los angeles and talks about increasing federal aid for education to hispanics and african-americans. who in the party right now, who in the republican party gives that speech? >> i think the problem is deeper than that. even when they talk about aid to the less fortunate, they make it sound like they're dropping nickels in a tin cup. what mitt romney misses and what the republicans miss is that even rich people need government. even if it is just to build the runways for their gulf stream jets. it is not a case of charity. we're all in this together. this is the essential message that barack obama ran on with robert and ran on again in his re-election campaign. the republicans don't get that basic concept. even when they're talking about government programs, they're talking about them as charity. they're not charity. >> steve schmidt we're out of time on this segment, need a quick word before you go. your reaction to cpac?

>> i said a couple weeks ago, it has become the star wars bar scene of the conservative movement. it was certainly that and more as we look at this. the good news for republicans is that group's power is mostly illusory. they're a group that will make a lot of noise, it will be incumbent on our serious candidates to call out the excesses of some of the people at cpac to be taken seriously by the middle of the country. >> robert gibbs, steve schmidt, howard fineman, thank you for joining me tonight. coming up, a new poll showing a surge in the support of marriage equality, support that now includes hillary clinton. but according to john boehner, he will never support marriage equality. but john boehner has a startling new point of agreement with president obama. and in the "rewrite," how the story of sarah palin is the story of the failure of our

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okay. here is everything that i think you need to know about cpac. >> well, i'll put it in a nutshell. if we don't run chris christie, romney will be the nominee. >> that was ann coulter. in 2011. here she is in 2012 at cpac. >> romney of the four remaining is the most conservative, has the strongest position on illegal immigration. >> oh, and here is ann coulter at cpac this past weekend. >> even cpac had to cut back on speakers this year by about 300 pounds. i'm now a single issue voter against amnesty. so christie is off my list.

>> ann was against romney before she was for him, and for christie before she was against him, and each of those positions got rousing applause at cpac. up next, hillary clinton moves into the majority on marriage equality. ♪ [ male announcer ] tenacity plated in chrome. determination covered in mud. fight firing on six cylinders. the new ram 1500 with best-in-class fuel economy. guts. glory. ram. motor trend's 2013 truck of the year. because all these whole grains aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter.

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they are full and equal citizens, deserve the rights of citizenship. that includes marriage. that's why i support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. i support it personally and as a matter of policy and law. >> what may be hillary clinton's first policy announcement of the next presidential campaign came 11 days after bill clinton who signed the defense of marriage act into law wrote an op-ed piece saying he believes that doma is, quote, incompatible with our constitution. the white house welcomed hillary clinton to the majority side of marriage equality today. >> i can tell you that the president believes any time a public official of stature steps forward to embrace a commitment that he shares to equality for lbgt americans he thinks is a good thing.

>> first of all, who is doing the lighting for that video? more godfather-y than i expected, that dark brooding look. >> it reminded me of the video she -- when she announced in 2008, it was that kind of soft, sing songy voice and lighting. listen, i don't think it is a surprise she has come out for same sex marriage. interesting this is her first post secretary of state announcement and now there's a lot of buzz around her possibly running in 2016. i think we have seen dramatic shift in public opinion. it happened swiftly. i remain shocked how much changed in the last couple years. if you go back to 2008, bush ran against same sex marriage and that in many ways helped him in states like ohio and florida. now you have potential candidates for president supporters.

>> interesting theory advanced in your huffington post today, sam stein, what nia mentioned, karl rove running against marriage equality provoked democrats into more of a spirited defense of it and more alignment with it, because rove kind of forced the issue. >> i mean remember, in 2004 in states like ohio, it was such a divisive issue, same sex marriage, you had people very protective on one hand and scared on the other. over four years, what we have had in terms of political conversation is a number of people that had personal experiences with gay members of the family or communities, so it is affecting people not just in democratic circles but republican circles. rob portman this past week, his son is gay, that effected him. we had a number of top conservative donors in the tri-state area that have become devoted to the gay rights cause

in part because of family members and are bank rolling candidates on that issue. that as much as anything else has been a huge boost to the lbgt movement. >> listen to john boehner that insists no matter how many relatives he has who may want marriage equality, he will never go there. listen to this. >> can you imagine yourself in a situation where you reversed your decision as portman has on gay marriage if a child of yours or someone you loved told you they were gay? >> listen, i believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. it's what i grew up with, it's what i believe, it's what my church teaches me, and i can't imagine that position would ever change. >> nia, there was one day working in the senate i came back to my office and said to myself is the difference between democrats and republicans that democrats can actually empathize with situations without experiencing them themselves?

because i used to get these things from republican senators. could you put this in the bill, could you put that in the bill, that they weren't going to vote for it because one of their family members had mental health issues. it was like what if -- can't you imagine what it is like for people, even if you don't have this in your family? >> right. can't you imagine what it might be like to be a struggling single mom who might have to get state assistance for medicaid or food stamps, and it seems that their position is firm in terms of ideology. >> i think we created a culture in politics where the worst you can do is be accused of flip flopping. but there's a virtue to evolving. there's distinction between flip flopping and evolving. real life experiences affect your policies, that's a good thing. something as big as a civil

rights issue as gay marriage or gay rights in general, i would hope our elected officials have open mindedness about the ability to conceive it differently down the road if it effects them personally. >> you're not going to get any admission of that sort from john boehner. his job there i guess was to give that particular answer, his party would be horrified if he said anything -- >> i mean, we're just about to have the supreme court case, doma, prop 8, we know where he is in support of doma, it would be difficult. >> if you're a republican operative at this juncture, you can't deny the math. you look at this, say the new poll, 81% under 30 support gay marriage. 40% of seniors. eventually will be well called the majority. maybe it is time to get ahead of the curve. >> thank you both for joining me tonight. coming up, the surprising agreement between john boehner and president obama.

they finally agree on something and it is no small thing. it is a really huge thing. the debt. in the "rewrite," i am going to show you jokes that sarah palin told at cpac, not because they're so funny, but to make a point about the failure of our political media. even the inside of your dishwasher sparkles. okay. so i'm the bad guy for being clean. you said it. ladies, let's not fight dirty. cascade kitchen counselor. see, over time, a competing gel can leave hard-water film on your dishes. new cascade platinum's triple-action formula not only cleans your dishes, it helps keep your dishwasher sparkling. so we're good? don't do that. okay. [ female announcer ] cascade's best is new cascade platinum. diarrhea, gas, bloating? yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues... with three strains of good bacteria. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life.

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police in the dominican republic confirm that three women were paid to falsely claim senator robert menendez paid them for sex. two of the women appeared on video published by "the daily caller" the week before last november's election. new jersey voters wisely ignored those videos then and senator menendez won in a landslide. investigators now say the women were hired by an attorney in the

dominican republic to make the videos and they want to question that attorney to see if it was his idea or he was paid by someone else to do those interviews. no word yet from "the daily caller" or the lawyers for "the daily caller." according to "the washington post," menendez is under investigation by a grand jury over his role in add row -- advocating for interests of a campaign donor. what is the last thing you would expect john boehner to say other than i support marriage equality, which you heard him say he would never say. other than that, what's the last thing you would expect john boehner to say? how about i agree with president obama. that's what you will hear him say coming up. and ten years ago tomorrow, the united states invaded iraq. david corn joins me for a look at the hubris that led us into the iraq war. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. [ bop ] [ bop ] [ bop ] you can do that all you want, i don't like v8 juice. [ male announcer ] how about v8 v-fusion. a full serving of vegetables, a full serving of fruit. but what you taste is the fruit. so even you... could've had a v8. we do not have an immediate debt crisis. >> yes. john boehner really said that! he said something that liberal nobel paul krugman said for years and they have been saying

the opposite. paul ryan echoed boehner on the debt saying we do not have a debt crisis. this is a very strange turn for republicans who have based all their budget cutting proposals on the idea that we do have a debt crisis. republicans in the age of obama have never wanted to mount a frontal, philosophical attack on social security and medicare because they're the two most popular things the american government provides. so instead of saying we want to cut and or eliminate social security and medicare because like rand we do not believe the government should be in the business of providing health care and or pensions and disability benefits to anyone, ever. instead, republicans have been saying we love medicare and we love social security but we simply can't afford those

programs in their current form because of our debt crisis, because of our huge budget deficit, so reluctantly and bravely, we republicans propose significant cuts to medicare and social security, cuts that we republicans believe will make those programs more solvent and last longer. because remember, we republicans love medicare, just love it, and we love social security. we just can't afford them. dropping the budget crisis argument moved john boehner and president obama much closer than they have ever been. >> we don't have a crisis in terms of debt. for the next ten years, it is going to be in a sustainable place. >> is he right that we don't have an immediate crisis? >> we do not have an immediate debt crisis. but we all know we have one looming. and we have one looming because we have entitlement programs

that are not sustainable in their current form. they're going to go bankrupt. >> how long do we have to solve our problems? >> nobody knows where this is. it could be a year, two years, three years, four years. it's not an immediate problem but we can -- >> you agree with the president on that? >> the american -- yes. >> joining me, crystal ball and chris kornacki. krystal, i don't get it. i don't know why republicans are abandoning the debt crisis talk. >> i think maybe they found their messaging wasn't sustainable. they have been harping on the debt crisis so long, yet we have low interest rates, we haven't seen inflation spike the way they also warned us about. deficits are actually declining since their peak in 2009 at quite rapid rates. so in a way, i think they aren't sure where to be and aren't finding that this messaging is sustainable, and want, they

recognize being the party of austerity isn't working for them, they're trying to move to something else, but can't figure out what something else might be. >> steve, you won't be surprised to realize some still think that we have an immediate debt crisis and those two people are sean hannity and rand paul. listen to this, happened a few minutes ago. >> the president says we don't have immediate debt crisis, john boehner and paul ryan confirm that. i find myself in disagreement. i think it is immediate, a clear and present danger. >> he is flat out wrong. we have an immediate problem. it's gathering storm. it's going to be enormous. >> so steve, the debt crisis school of thought is now being moved to the republican fringe. >> we kind of, you know, in a way, sort of a back handed way, paul ryan confirmed last year and last couple years he didn't think we had immediate deficit and debt problem. his budget didn't come into

balance for like 40 years. it was one of the more underreported aspects of the 2012 campaign. you play that clip, it almost looked like martha rad its put it to them like you agree with president obama, he was like wait a minute. i followed that track. he had no choice but to say yes. i think we'll hear we have a spending problem, a huge spending problem and greece, i doubt they're dropping that argument any time soon. >> krystal, i wish martha said you agree with paul krugman, one of the rotating regulars on that abc show. paul has been a lonely voice trying to talk sense now for years about austerity, why we shouldn't be going there, the difference between deficits and debt and exactly what the weight is of each, when we should take action on these things. to see the republicans lining up

not just with the president but as i said in my opening comments with paul krugman, it is a special moment. i don't know how they continue to make their case for medicare cuts and social security cuts. do they intend to back off pushing for those? >> i think it has been politically difficult conversation for them. frankly, in terms of their hope for reforms through a grand bargain, i think democrats are looking at this situation and saying wait a minute, we don't have an immediate debt crisis. deficits are coming down. what is it republicans are going to give us in this grand bargain that we really want that would really be worth cutting the social safety net in the way they want to. i think they may have missed their window for those sorts of changes. >> and it may be their shorthand explanation why they're not doing more governing. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence.

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there were a lot of single young people attending cpac, and according to an abc news report, there were a lot of bad pickup lines. lines like this one. why don't you give me your number so i can give you my information about my radio show. seriously, an actual pickup line heard at cpac. also popular at cpac, the obvious so who's your favorite for 2016. up next, no one's favorite for 2016, sarah palin is in tonight's "rewrite." be a nice surprise. meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max come. c-max go. c-max give a ride to everyone it knows. c max has more passenger volume than competitor prius v and we haven't even mentioned... c-max also gets better mpg.

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♪ i love those hockey moms. they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull, lipstick. >> unfortunately for sarah palin, a presidential campaign is not a joke telling contest. she was by far, and i mean by far, the best comedian of the 2008 presidential campaign, ad lib and political comedy. thanks to that joke and others, was judged by many in the media to be a smashing success. sarah palin presented the american political media with an intelligence test that far too many of them failed, a political intelligence test. sarah palin has been complaining

about the mainstream media for years because many of us have been critical of her and some of us highly critical, but she never thanked the members of the lamer stream media that spent some of the last years in her thrall, going so far to suggest she could be a real challenger or the frontrunner for a presidential nomination. they believed this and said this after she quit her governorship halfway through her term. she quit. that moment was the moment sarah palin was wisely declaring i will never be a candidate for anything ever again, and most of the political media didn't get it because she didn't specifically say those words. nothing could have been more obvious. she was sick of the investigations in alaska, sick of the audits of her spending of campaign money, sick of the

scrutiny and ethical standards politicians must live with. but what was also obvious was that she loved stardom. she loved fame. and she loved the dollar value of fame, which she immediately translated into best selling authorship and book tours which pundits mistakenly saw as laying the groundwork for a possible presidential campaign. the story of sarah palin during those years was the story of the failure of the political media who just didn't get her and actually thought she was still an ambitious politician. at cpac this weekend, once again sarah palin could not have been clearer. she was declaring as loudly as she possibly could that she is a comedian first, political commentator second. let's just sit back and enjoy the comedy stylings of sarah palin, including all the i hate

the president jokes. as you watch this, the point of it for me, i want you to picture all of the political reporters and all of the political pundits and all the newspapers, "the new york times," "the washington post," who so gravely misunderstood sarah palin for so long and who failed to comprehend on the day she quit her governorship that she was quitting politics and entering show business. >> ted cruz like a good texan comes to town, chews barbed wire and spits out rust. that's what we mean. i was thinking how much i like texans. one reason, they don't mess around with our second amendment rights. and background checks? yeah, i guess to learn more about a person's thinking and associations and intentions,

more background checks. dandy idea, mr. president. should have started with yours. remember no drama obama? if only. now it is all drama obama. we don't have leadership coming out of washington. we have reality television. [ applause ] except it is really bad reality tv, and the american people tuned out a long time ago. we can't just ignore, though, that we just lost a big election. came in second out of two. second position on the dog sled team, it's where the view never changes and the view ain't pretty. barack obama promised the most transparent administration ever.

barack obama, you lied. [ applause ] mr. president, we admit it, you won. accept it. now step away from the teleprompter and do your job. is it any wonder there's such a run on guns and ammo for christmas presents a couple months ago, considering politicians' attack on the second amendment. you should have seen what todd got me for christmas. well, it wasn't that exciting. it is a metal rack, a case for a hunting rifle to put on the back of a four wheeler, and then i had to get something for him to put in the gun case, rise? so this go around he has the rifle, i got the rack. [ cheers and applause ]

oh, bloomberg is not around, our big gulp is safe, we're cool. shoot, it's just pop, with low cal ice cubes in it. i hope that's okay. my only piece of advice, because i am a mama, my only piece of advice to college republicans, you have to be thinking sam adams, not drinking sam adams. if these experts who keep losing elections, you keep getting rehired, raking in millions, if they feel that strongly about who gets to run in this party, then they should buck up or stay in the truck. buck up and run. the architects can head on back -- they can head on back to the great lone star state and put their name on some ballot, though for their sake, i hope

they give themselves a discount on their consulting services. it is about great concern about a president claiming power to direct drones, to kill whomever and whenever without accountability, but no power to open up the white house for the school kids to get to go visit over spring break. god bless you, cpac. and god bless the united states of america! conservative. very logical thinker. (laughs) i'm telling you right now, the girl back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. (screams) i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for. one traveler at a time. expedia. find yours.

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the problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire a nuclear weapon, but we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. >> tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the start of the iraq war, a war 53% of americans now believe was a mistake. how that mistake was made is the subject of the msnbc documentary hubris, selling the iraq war based on the book of the same

title by david corn. here is bill keller, former executive editor of "the new york times" discussing the media's role leading up to the war. >> but there was a kind of, you know, kind of mainstream view that this was real. add to that the kind of -- just the competitive urge that motivates newspaper reporters, the desire to get stories first, to get stories exclusively, to get stories on the front page, you know, all those came into play and in fact the times wrote a number of bad stories, inadequately sourced, unskeptical stories about particularly about saddam's weapons capabilities, and those

stories were rewarded with lavish front page display. times also wrote a lot of very good stories, more skeptical stories, and those tended to be buried on page a-13. reporters respond to those incentives. there were some reporters, you know, went out looking to feed that hunger for scoops. >> david corn, speaking of someone who never said anything in favor of the iraq war, i've always been kind of defensive for the media on this, and people would say to me at the time how come they're not reporting on the aluminum tubes that can be used for this -- i said the reason you know that is that you read it in "the washington post" or "the new york times" and the quibble we now seem to be into, which feels like a quibble for me, well, this story was on page one, but this was on page 18.

i personally don't invest more in a page one story than a page 18 story. >> i think it is slightly more than a quibble. i think we get into this in the book, mike isikoff, i have a story in mother jones that came out today, in any story you can pick, there tends to be a tone the coverage ends up creating, can be in favor of something or against it, ask any president about any controversy. there's an overarching tone. if you look at the reporting, the tone was very accepting of what the bush administration was claiming. so a good example would be, and not everybody is as discerning as you are, a good example, front page story in "the washington post," use that as an example, could be anybody else. today president bush said saddam hussein and is working with al qaeda. he is here, this is the story, and they quote an unnamed